Peer and social support

This section includes a range of topics around peer and social support and options for training, mentoring and supervising.

People, families, whanau and communities can play a key role in managing their own health and wellbeing. Peer and social support for self-management, especially when peers are identified by patients, such as friends and family rather than strangers, has been found to help with achieving positive health outcomes. As evidence of efficacy grows, these patient-centred approaches to self-management are becoming more prevalent both in New Zealand and overseas. There are many similarities to Health Coaching, and the work done by Kaiawhina and Navigators.

Peer support

A peer is a person who has had a similar experience to another person or people, such as the experience of living with diabetes or mental distress that has had a significant impact on a person’s life. They can be in paid or unpaid employment, and use their experience to benefit others in the work they do. In New Zealand, there are several examples of peer support programmes and initiatives, mostly in the area of mental health.

However, programmes such as the Stanford Chronic Disease Self Management Education Programme are designed to be led by ‘peer leaders’ who share their own lived experience with participants as part of the facilitation process. Peer support workers, whether paid or unpaid, usually work within a structured programme and generally receive training and supervision as part of their role.

Examples of peer support programmes

Peer support can range from informal peer networks or buddy systems to formal peer support programmes. In New Zealand, some examples include:

Social support

An individual's social support comes from their own unique social network. The quality of these networks can have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people living with long-term conditions. There is an increasing body of evidence demonstrating that an individual's social network can enable people to self-manage, maintain social integration and individual identity.

Unlike peer support, social support is informal, and quality will vary from person to person. Whilst the value of an individual’s social network is becoming increasingly recognised as having an impact on health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly for people with complex co-morbidities, little is often known, shared, or recorded by the primary care team.

Read more about social support and care maps

Page last updated: 12 Jul 2022

Care maps

Jessica Young, a researcher at the University of Otago has been leading some work on the development and testing of ‘care maps’ in primary care settings. A care map is a tool designed to facilitate a conversation and capture information about a person’s social network and provide a holistic view of the person’s lived experience and the effects of care from different sources. To find out more about Jessica’s work social networks and care maps watch Jessica's webinar or follow this link to watch other relevant webinars. An exercise in developing a care map has been included in the health coach training programme.

Social prescribing

Social prescribing has become increasingly prevalent in the UK. It is a way of linking people with social supports in the community. GPs can refer patients to link workers who work with people to find out their needs and refer them to appropriate organisations and services. Different training programmes are available to support the social prescribing initiatives and ‘link workers’ come from a wide variety of backgrounds and roles, including, GP receptionist, health coach, peer support workers (including volunteers) etc. Read more.

Learn more

Social prescribing Health Navigator NZ
What is social prescribing? The King's Fund
Helen Stokes-Lampard - Social prescribing and the current NHS landscape The King's Fund

Resources	Description
	Engaging with consumers: A guide for DHBs Developed by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, this resource is a practical guide to help New Zealand district health boards, and the health and disability services they fund, to engage better with consumers. It covers consumer engagement in the design and delivery of services, as well as the development of policy and governance procedures. The guide provides evidence about consumer engagement – both nationally and internationally, shares the successes and learnings of New Zealand providers about how they engage with consumers, and promotes good practice throughout the health and disability sector.
	Peer Support Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand (2011) Authors: Dr Anne Scott, Dr Carolyn Doughty and Hamuera Kahi, University of Canterbury Study summarising 14 peer support services around NZ Looks at recovery and peer support, mutuality and trust, self-determination, Kaupapa Māori approaches to peer support, Practice issues such as risk and much more.
	Service user, consumer and peer workforce Published by Te Pou, MidCentral DHB and Northern Region Alliance A guide aimed at planners and funders of mental health and addiction services. A guide for planners and funders A guide for managers and employers
	Competencies for the mental health and addiction service user, consumer and peer workforce 28 pages
	Power of peer support services (in mental health & addiction) Mental Health Commission, NZ "A non-clinical intervention for people experiencing mental distress and/or an addiction. Based on a formal therapeutic relationship between peers (people who have experienced similar adversity). Provide support BEFORE a crisis. Non judgemental and personal."
	Peer Zone "The Peer Zone employees, coordinators and associates use their lived experience of mental distress or addiction to inform their work and change the world. They now run a range of workshops, have developed an online toolkit and provide consultancy services regionally, nationally and internationally.
	Building peer support programmes to manage chronic disease: 7 models to success California Healthcare Foundation "Well-designed & executed peer support interventions empower patients to improve the management of their health & provide meaningful opportunities for patients to help others facing similar challenges."
	Emerge Aotearoa Peer Support Services "Emerge Aotearoa provides a wide range of community-based mental health, addiction, disability support and social housing services nationwide. We believe that everyone is capable of living full and rich lives in their communities of choice. In every aspect of our work we are committed to helping our service users be the best they can be."
	Helping high school students build student leaders who support junior students NZ Peer Support Trust "The Peer Support Programme offers secondary schools the opportunity to provide new entrants to secondary school a structured introduction to school under the guidance of senior students who are trained as leaders."